


little bit in love with you

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), acxa refuses to believe she's biologically related to him, keith has no chill but he's also too shy to make a move on shiro, keith injuries himself a couple of times because he's too busy thristing after shiro, very very light tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 19:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14479302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When a gorgeous guy named Shiro moves into the opposite house of Keith's, it takes Keith exactly five seconds to develop the world's biggest crush on him.After a while Shiro lifts his head and his eyes finally lands on Keith, a smile immediately appearing on his face. Keith reaches for his phone to send him a quick text to ask what he’s doing, but Shiro politely lifts a finger to stop him andout of nowhere, he pulls a notepad and starts writing something on it.Keith freezes.Oh God. Oh God, it’s really happening.He’s made a joke about it literally twenty minutes ago and now his life’s really turning into a Taylor Swift clip.Shiro finishes writing and turns the notepad towards him.SORRY, LEFT MY PHONE DOWNSTAIRS.He turns the page.I WAS LOOKING FOR MY TELESCOPE, THE SKY IS SO CLEAR TONIGHT.He turns the page again.DO YOU WANNA COME OVER?





	little bit in love with you

**Author's Note:**

> so in my previous vld fic, i wrote keith and acxa as twins and i liked the concept much that i also wanted to write a sheith fic with acxa/keith/krolia as a family!  
> 

The first time Keith sees Shiro through his window, he almost breaks his neck by accident.

It all starts on a sunny Saturday afternoon when he’s cleaning his room. Despite Acxa’s brutal criticism and his mother’s complaints about his messiness, Keith _does_ clean his room real nice when he’s in the mood and today happens to be one of them. He is even willing to clean his window with a rubber. So he selects an uplifting playlist from Spotify and climbs to the window sill.

“This will show Acxa.” he murmurs as he begins to scrub the glass carefully. After a few minutes, he retreats to admire his handiwork and that’s when he notices the moving van.

 _Huh,_ Keith thinks, leaning on the closed window glass to take a closer look. The opposite house has been empty for a year now since the owners has moved to Italy. It looks like the house has been finally sold.

He’s about to get back to his business when his eyes catches on someone and the sight literally makes him freeze on the window sill.

 _Beautiful,_ is the only word he can think of to describe the guy outside. He's tall, has a built body that screams he regularly works out and his bright black hair looks soft, even through the window. He’s helping the movers to carry furniture into the house and Keith _can’t_ stop looking at him. The guy pauses to wipe his sweat from his forehead (Keith notices one of his arms is prosthetic with an interest), a little smile appearing on his face as he looks at the house. 

Keith realises with a jolt that the gorgeous guy is his new neighbour. That he’ll see him in the future. His knees wobbles a little.

“…the hell are you looking at?”

Keith, to his utter shame, shrieks out and falls back to the floor from the window.

“ _Oh my god!_ ” Acxa quickly runs to him, kneeling beside to check if he’s hurt. “Are you OK? Have you injured yourself?”

He opens his mouth to say no, but before he can do that, hurried footsteps climbs the staircase and his mom dives into the room like a storm, still wearing her gardening gloves. Her eyes slips from Keith to Acxa.

“Please tell me you didn’t push your brother.” Krolia says quietly.

“Mom, _seriously?_ ” she asks with an offended expression, poking Keith on his shoulder. “You OK, dummy?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” he grunts, picking himself up from the floor. “I was just cleaning my window and Acxa startled me.”

Two pair of shocked eyes look at him.

“You were _what_?” his mom asks slowly.

Acxa looks worried. “Mom, I think he hit his head.”

Keith throws his hands in the air. “Oh come on! Are you guys acting like that on purpose? You _know_ I clean my room.”

“Sure thing honey.” Krolia says calmly, turning on her heels to leave the room. “I’ll go get some ice for your head just in case.”

Keith frowns behind her but he lays down on his bed because his head indeed hurts a little. Acxa continues standing in his room and looks around.

“Hmm.” she says, crossing her arms.

“What?” Keith’s aware he sounds a little too defensive but that’s a trait that comes with growing up with a twin sister.

“Nothing, nothing.” Acxa says in a soothing voice, walking towards the window. “So you actually cleaned the window?”

Keith suddenly feels arrogant. “Yeah,” he says smugly. “It shines like a mirror, you can check it yourself.”

Keith realises his mistake too late as Acxa actually leans into the window and looks outside. It takes her exactly fifteen seconds to combine the hot guy outside and Keith’e earlier position together and she looks at him with a devilish smile on her face.

“You’re right, it _is_ like a mirror. Just shows everything right.”

* * *

Things get interesting the next morning.

Keith’s eating his cereal miserably on the kitchen table when Acxa returns from her morning run. Apparently he's actually hurt his neck from yesterday’s fall because it throbs with a dull pain. So when his sister excitedly asks him “Guess what happened?”, Keith grumpily answers “Not now.”

Acxa’s lips become a thin line as she glares at Keith. “Fine. Then I won’t tell you what I saw about our new neighbours.”

The words immediately attracts Keith’s attention but he knows if he asks now, he’s going to sound needy and Acxa’s going to feel _so_ smug about it. So he just continues to eat cereal quietly, every passing second killing him inside a little with burning curiosity.

Acxa takes a large bite off her green apple, chewing slowly as she examines Keith. She finally rolls her eyes. “Because I’m a good sister, I’ll forget your rudeness for once. You can ask.”

Keith’s tongue comes loose. “What did you see?”

Acxa pours herself a glass of water. “I run across Allura on the way back to home by chance. She was leaving the new neighbour’s house.”

“Really? Why, is he her friend? Relative?”

Acxa shrugs. “Couldn’t ask unfortunately. She was in a hurry, she said she was running late to her ballet practice and apologised for not stopping by at our home.”

Keith _absolutely_ doesn’t pout as he leans his cheek against his palm.

“Oh cheer up, you useless gay.” Acxa picks her phone from the counter, quickly dealing a number and putting it back to counter. “We can find out.”

The line rings once, twice, and then gets picked up. Acxa merely says a hello before Keith rushes in. “Hey, do you know if Allura has a black haired beefy guy friend with a prosthetic arm?”

“Wow, thirsty much?” Acxa deadpans but Keith ignores her.

The line is silent for a moment as Keith waits impatiently. Then, Lotor’s smooth and posh voice is heard from the phone.

“Well good morning to you too, cousins,” he says, sounding amused. “I’m quite fine this morning, thank you for asking. How about you two? Is Aunt Krolia around?”

Keith’s about to smash something. “Dude, seriously?”

“Keith, calm down for fuck’s sake.” Axca scolds. “Hi Lotor, good morning. No, mom left early for work today, she’s not home. I’m okay but Keith looks like he’s gonna have a fucking heart attack or something if he doesn’t instantly find out how Allura and our new neighbour know each other.”

“I’m not!” Keith immediately objects but he’s well aware how obsessive he sounds right now. “I’m just…curious.”

“Hmm…” Lotor says thoughtfully now that he’s finished mocking Keith. “She mentioned she was visiting a friend who recently moved to your neighbourhood but I don’t know who the guy is.”

“How?” Acxa rolls her eyes. “You’re her boyfriend. You live _together._ Shouldn’t you know everything about her?”

“Absolutely not. She has every right to keep some things private if she pleases.” Lotor answers decisively. “Are you saying you know _everything_ about Ezor?”

Acxa is silent for a moment. “Fair.” she says eventually.

“I’m sorry for being no help Keith,” Lotor says through the speaker. “Do you want me to ask Allura about it when she gets back from her practice?”

“No!” Keith exclaims quickly, burying his face to the counter. “Nooo,” he moans slowly this time with a muffled voice. “Look, I’m just a simple seventeen year old guy who thinks his new neighbour is painfully gorgeous, okay? You guys need to leave me be. Let’s just keep this between us.”

Acxa’s snort is fond as she rubs his back briefly and Lotor laughs with his rich voice as he promises not to tell Allura.

* * *

This sunday, Keith’s going to go the church and thank God for making him use the kitchen door in that fateful afternoon.

When he gets back from the school on friday, he’s the literal definition of gross. He didn’t use the showers after an intense badminton match with Hunk in PE because a) the shower stalls were incredibly unhygienic and he could be at home in just ten minutes with his bicycle and b) he really wasn’t in the mood to listen Lance’s obnoxious singing. After putting his bicycle to the garage, he heads inside from the back door of the kitchen and immediately freezes like a deer caught in the headlights.

The front door is open and since it directly faces their kitchen, Keith can clearly see his mom standing on their porch, waving at their new neighbours –the gorgeous guy and an old man— who are coming straight at their home.

Keith’s breathing stops for a moment. His mom can’t see him since her back is turned but when the neighbours reach the front door, they’ll definitely see him, so his mom will also see and call for him and he’s going to have to meet the gorgeous guy. When he’s a stinking, sweaty, red faced mess.

There is only one logical thing to do.

Keith’s hip painfully bumps against the sharp edge of the kitchen table as he dives to hide under it but he’s too frantic to grasp the concept of pain right now. Seconds later, the neighbours reach the porch.

“Hello,” the old man’s voice says. “My name is Hiraku and this is my grandson Shiro. And you’re Mrs…?”

“Just Krolia is fine.” His mom’s voice carries a polite coldness. “I’m not married.”

“Oh.” Hiraku says, sounding very ashamed. “Forgive me, it was quite rude of me to assume.”

Keith can almost imagine her waving a hand in the air. “It’s okay, easy mistake I guess. People see a woman with two kids and…”

“Oh, you have two kids?” The gorgeous guy, _Shiro_ , asks suddenly and Keith’s heartbeat starts to pick up. He really has a smooth voice.

A brief surprised silence follows and Shiro explains in a rush. “Sorry, it’s been almost a week since we moved here and I’ve only seen you and your daughter, so I thought…”

“Ah.” Krolia lets out a short but genuine laugh. “Yeah, Acxa has a twin brother actually but I guess my Keith is a bit like a silent ninja…Anyway, how do you like the neighbourhood so far?”

Keith pouts under the table as they continue making small talk. _You’re pathetic_ , he scolds himself. _It’s been a week since he moved here and let alone making a move on him, he doesn’t even know you exist! Pathetic, pathetic, pa—_

“Well, thank you for the lovely talk Krolia.” Shiro’s grandfather says eventually. “We feel very lucky to have as kind neighbours as you are.”

“You’re very welcome.” His mom replies with a smile in her voice. “Could you wait for a moment please? I don’t want to send you empty handed.”

Oh no.

“Thank you but there’s really no need—”

“Please, I insist.”

Oh, _no_.

As Krolia’s footsteps approaches, Keith tries to hide under the table as good as can but of course, the moment she steps into the kitchen, his mom’s eyes zeroes on him.

“Hi,” Keith whispers weakly.

Krolia frowns lightly at him but she walks over to the counter to quickly make a plate of her blueberry muffins without making a comment. She gives the plate to the neighbours, sending them off with a few polite words, and then comes back to crawl under the table before Keith can get up.

There’s a little troubled look in her almost violet coloured (the same colour as Keith’s eyes) when she looks at him. “Is this a…social anxiety thing? Would like to talk about it?”

Keith gives her a blank look. “What?”

“Did you see the neighbours were heading over and decided to hide under the table to avoid them?” his mom asks gently, still sounding mildly worried.

“Well, yeah.” Keith blurts without thinking. “But I mean—it’s not because of the social anxiety, mom. Don’t worry.”

The worried look mostly vanishes from Krolia’s eyes but she looks confused this time. “Then why?”

Keith sighs but it’s best his mom hears it from him. There’s only so much time before Acxa opens her big mouth to tell her anyway. Keith is kind of surprised she hasn’t yet.

“Have you seen the beefy guy?” he murmurs.

Surprisingly, his mom’s demeanour changes almost dangerously as she clutches Keith’s arm. “Has he lied about not knowing you?” she asks with hard voice. “Is he bothering you or something? Because if he is, I swear—”

“ _Oh my God,_ mom, no!” Keith exclaims, eyes going wide with every word she says. “No, I meant to say, have you seen how _extremely pretty_ he is?”

Krolia lets go of his arm, mouth shaping a little “o”. She begins laughing. “Then why didn’t you introduce yourself to him?”

“Because I look gross, mom! I can’t meet my first boyfriend first time looking like this!”

The words comes out of him almost without his control and blood rushes to his face. His mom looks surprised too. “Your first boyfriend…?”

“My first, maybe, future boyfriend…” Keith manages to say weakly, feeling pathetic again. “Who doesn’t even know I exist.”

His mom chuckles again as she caresses his gross, sweaty hair. She must really love him if she’s willing to touch his hair in it’s current state.

“Tell you what,” she says softly. “Go get a nice shower and after that, you can tell me all about it with the company of coffee and blueberry muffins. Deal?”

"Deal." Keith murmurs.

* * *

It’s kind of Keith’s own fault for agreeing to go roller skating with Pidge and the others when he absolutely sucked at it, but it was her birthday and he really didn’t have the heart to say no to her. Plus, he was eager to see Lance make a fool of himself trying to roller skate.

But, of course, the fucker had to go on and ruin his plans. He’s apparently gone and mastered roller skating until Pidge’s birthday because he was _that_ desperate to impress her. So when Pidge quickened her speed to skate faster after an hour of lazily skating, her joyful laugh jingling the street as her little ponytail danced behind her, Lance looked behind her with a brief smitten face and then sped up with perfect grace to catch up with her after smugly saying, _“Hasta la later, losers. Actually, just loser. You know I love you Hunk.”_ Keith’s going to kill him the next time he sees him.

“Oh man,” Hunk groans, looking extremely tired. “Don’t you think it’s enough?”

Keith’s own knees are shaking with exhaustion. “I think it’s more than enough,” he grimaces. “Let’s head home. Hope that idiot can finally confess his feelings to Pidge.”

“I’ll kill him with my bare hands if he doesn’t.” Hunk replies with a calm manner, pulling the skates off his feet even though he has to walk barefoot now. “It’s so obvious they both like each other. Pining is only so much cute before it gets annoying, you know?”

A shiver runs down on Keith’s spine for some complately _oblivious_ reason. He doesn’t make a comment.

They part ways in the bus stop since Hunk has to take the bus to go home whereas Keith’s home is nearby so he can go on foot. The skates are _killing_ his feet but he refuses to take them off like Hunk did, because if Lance can roller skate like some damn professional, he sure can walk on them a few blocks. Even if he’s barely stopping himself from making a sound like a wounded animal.

The weather is unnaturally warm for April so Keith’s wearing cargo shorts and a simple shirt. He wants to cry from relief by the time he enters the street his home is in. Just as he’s about take the final steps, he notices Shiro’s in the garden of his home.

 _Oh._ Almost instantly, his heartbeat starts to pick up. _Now wouldn’t be such a bad time to finally introduce myself,_ he thinks suddenly, skating a little towards Shiro almost unconsciously. Sure, he could do better than cargo shorts but it has to do now. He’s thinking about how he should introduce himself when he suddenly notices Shiro is concentrated on something. Keith takes another step towards him as subtly as he can, and sees he’s doodling on a sketchbook.

 _Oh,_ he thinks again, this time with a small disappointment. Turns out, now would be a bad time to introduce himself when Shiro is peacefully doodling and enjoying himself. _Another time,_ Keith thinks bitterly but he’s slowly starting to lose hope. If it goes on like this, they’ll probably never meet until they’re both old men. He lets out a long sigh, turning to leave and—

Keith trips on the sidewalk and falls hard on his naked knees.

“ _Fuck!”_ he wails as he feels his skin tearing open. The metallic smell of the blood is already making him nauseous. His legs wobbles as he uselessly tries to stand up in stupid fucking skates. He wants to hit something.

“Oh God, are you OK?”

Keith’s eyes widens. _No, dear lord, please no_ _—_

Seconds later, Shiro is suddenly kneeling beside him, his concerned dark grey eyes are looking right at him. Keith doesn’t dare to breath.

“May I?” Shiro asks gently and Keith quickly nods even though he has no idea what he’s requesting. Shiro’s big, gentle hands touch Keith’s knees with a great care as he examines the wound. Keith’s feeling a little dizzy.

“This need tenture d’iyote.” he finally says with a serious face. “Otherwise, it will catch an infection. Here, let me help you.”

Then, he leans over Keith and _fucking_ picks him up with his own arms as if Keith weights nothing. Keith doesn’t manage to make anything other than a tiny squeak as Shiro carries him bridal style. He’s pretty sure his entire face looks like a red traffic light. He doesn’t even think about saying “ _Thanks man but my home is right over there, I can do it myself.”_ He just quietly sits in Shiro’s arms.

Shiro unlocks the door without even needing to let go of him, making Keith gulp audibly. He gently sits Keith down on a chair, looking at his skates thoughtfully.

“I think these are what made you fall.” he says. “Let’s get you out of them.”

Keith’s face burns as he hurriedly takes his skates off, well aware his feet look like a swollen, red dough. _Such a wonderful condition to finally meet your crush,_ he grimaces, taking a peek at Shiro’s face but the other guy only looks sympathetic as he opens the pharmacy cabinet.

“I know this isn’t a very good time for introductions but,” he smiles, pulling a little bottle, some wound cotton and band aids from the cabinet. “I’m Shiro.”

“I know.” Keith says quickly because he’s a _fucking_ idiot. “I mean,” he continues in response to Shiro’s questioning look. “I’ve heard about you from my mom. I’m your neighbour, Keith.”

Shiro’s face brightens as he looks at him. “Oh, the mysterious Keith!” he exclaims unexpectedly, making Keith’s heart flutter because of the stupid nickname. “Sorry, that was a lot.” Shiro clears his throat, looking suddenly ashamed. “I mean I’ve heard about you but never seen you so I was— yeah. A little surprised.” He nervously rubs the back of his neck.

 _It’s because I’m a coward,_ Keith thinks but he murmurs a quiet “It’s okay. Nice to meet you, Shiro.”

Shiro gives him a little pained smile. “Although I wish the circumstances were better, it’s nice to meet you too Keith.” He grabs the things he took from the cabinet, kneeling in front of Keith for the _second_ time today. Keith’s not entirely sure he hasn’t passed out when he fell and all of this isn’t a dream.

“This might hurt a little,” Shiro warns as he pours a brown liquid to a piece of cotton. “But we have to clean the wound.”

Keith braces himself, expecting pain, but Shiro’s touch is as light as a butterfly and the pain is very brief. He finds himself examining Shiro’s face instead, his eyes hanging on the faded scar on Shiro’s nose. Keith curls his hand to a fist to stop himself from tracing it.

“You’re lucky, it’s not a deep cut.” Shiro comments after a while. “Have you injured yourself when you were roller skating before?”

“No, um...” Keith’s cheeks are flaming. “I don’t roller skate actually. Today’s the birthday of one of my closest friends, and she likes roller skating so I couldn’t say no.”

Shiro gives him a little smile as he starts cleaning his other knee’s wound. “You’re a good friend. One of my best friends once wanted to practice ballet with me on her birthday and I unfortunately had to turn her down. I’m absolutely horrible at ballet.”

Keith perks at the mention of ballet. “Are you talking about Allura?”

Shiro genuinely looks surprised. “Yeah. How do you know it was her?”

“Well,” Keith says as casually as he can. He doesn’t want Shiro to think he’s some kind of creep who stalks him. Which he kind of does, to be honest, but that’s not the point. “She’s dating my cousin and she mentioned him that our new neighbour is her friend, so...”

“Ohh, I kinda remember she mentioned something like that now.” Shiro nods thoughtfully. “She’s just never said which neighbours she was talking about. So you’re Lotor’s cousin?”

“Actually, we’re more like second-generation cousins.” Keith explains unnecessarily but Shiro’s looking at him with interest. “But we basically grew up together so yeah, we’re cousins.”

“He really looks like a good guy.” Shiro smiles. “Haven’t met him yet unfortunately but he makes Allura crazy happy and that’s all really matters.”

Keith’s insides melts a little. “Are you childhood friends or…?” He knows he’s being incredibly nosy but Shiro doesn’t seem to mind.

“High school friends, actually.” he answers. “We were at the same term.”

Keith quickly does the math. That means Shiro is also nineteen like Allura.

“I’ve started studying at the same college she goes this year.” he continues, a small frown appearing on his face this time. “I was supposed to start last year but...my grandpa had a nasty heart attack. I had to nurse him back to health.”

“I’m so sorry.” Keith quietly says.

“It’s okay, he’s doing so much better now. It’s just...” he smiles again but this time it looks too forced, as if he’s grimacing. “I had a car accident when I was eleven which costed me my parents and my right arm,” he lifts his prosthetic arm. “And since then, he’s the only family I left with. So yeah, it was a bit rough time.”

“I’m _so_ sorry.” Keith repeats a little desperately this time because he doesn’t want to seem like he’s pitying Shiro but he’s really shaken up from the story.

Shiro blinks a couple times. “No, I’m sorry.” he says harshly. “You just asked a simple question and I basically dumped my tragic story on you without asking. I’m sorry.”

“No, don’t apologise,” Keith says with determination. He bravely reaches forward and touches Shiro’s hand, looking at him directly in the eye. “I’m honored you shared this with me. And I’m certain your whole family is very proud of you. Whether they’re physically with you or not.”

Shiro continues looking at him, dark grey eyes slowly filling with affection as his face softens. Keith shyly retreats his hand back and lowers his eyes to his lap, he’s pretty sure he will have a meltdown if he keeps staring at Shiro’s eyes.

“Thank you.” he murmurs, finishing cleaning Keith’s wounds without another word. He gently sticks wound bands to each knee and stands up smiling.

“All done.”

Keith stands up as well and gathers his stuff, looking at Shiro with a pained face. “I really don’t know how to properly thank you.”

“Well,” Shiro’s smile turns teasing. “You can kindly let your friend know you love her but you’d rather not roller skate next time and consider it done.”

Keith lets out a surprised laugh. “OK, I’ll definitely do that.” He begins to walk towards the door, Shiro quietly following him behind. Keith turns to him when he opens the door.

“Seriously though,” he says shyly. “Thank you _so much_ for helping me. You’re a really kind guy.”

“You’re welcome.” Shiro’s gorgeous face looks even more gorgeous in the afternoon sunlight. “Like I said, I wish the circumstances were better but...I’m glad I finally meet you Keith.”

Keith’s heart flutters from the way Shiro says his name. “Me too. And I’m sorry, by the way, you seemed like you were busy with something before I interrupted you.”

“Don’t even mention it, I was just aimlessly doodling something.” He makes a face. “I’m pretty terrible at it but Bob Ross says painting is a nice way to put a happy buck in your pocket, so...”

An idea suddenly forms in Keith’s head. “I can teach you the basics if you want.” he says before he loses his nerve.

Shiro looks surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Keith says, his heartbeat picking up _again._ “I mean some people say I’m good at art, so I can help you if you want.” _Please say yes, please, please_ _—_

“I’d love that.” Shiro says with bright eyes but he looks hesitant. Keith’s stomach drops a little. “Are you sure you have time for this though? I wouldn’t want you to feel like you have to do it.”

“Oh, hush you.” Keith scolds, relief spreading to his body. “I offered. I will help if you accept it.”

“Okay,” Shrio laughs lightly. “Would you like to come over at two o’clock tomorrow?”

“Definitely.” Keith says quickly, maybe too quickly.

Shiro gives him a big finale smile. He’s smiled so much today. All of them are going to be scraped into Keith’s memory. “All right. See you tomorrow Keith.”

Keith practically runs to home. “Yeah. Cool. See you.”

When he enters the home, Acxa is watching TV in the living room and his mom is nowhere to be seen. He walks over to living room in an almost drunken state. (Not that he has any idea what it feels like to be drunk because he’s never wanted his mom to murder him, but he’s pretty sure it has to be something like this.)

“There you are,” Acxa says as she takes a spoonful from her smoothie bowl. “How was Pidge’s birth— holy shit, did you fall?”

Keith looks down at his knees and his dizziness finally hits him, making him falling on his knees again.

“ _Keith!_ ” Acxa quickly runs to him. “Oh my God, what the fuck happened?”

Keith takes her hands into his. “Acxa,” he says with a dreamy sigh. “My future husband is the sweetest guy in the world.”

Acxa continues looking at him with big blue eyes for a while, then she slaps his head. Roughly.

" _Ow!"_

“Your fucking dramatic antics are gonna kill me one day.” She stands up and goes back to her previous spot, taking her smoothie bowl again. “Now spill.”

* * *

After that, they fall into a comfortable rhythm.

Keith’s heart still beats like crazy whenever he looks at Shiro’s face too long, he still wants to lean over and kiss him softly, still wants him to be his boyfriend but he’s also come to enjoy Shiro’s friendship very much. So if they end up never dating, even though it’ll hurt, even though he’ll be hung up on Shiro for a long time, he’ll be glad to stay as his friend at least. Shiro’s become an indispensable part of his life in a short time.

The worst part is (or the best, depends on where you look) his friends have also gotten attached to Shiro pretty quick. Allura has thrown a party to officially introduce him to the rest of the group, and within an hour, everybody was making easy conversation with him as if they’ve known him for years.

(“Good choice, darling,” Lotor had whispered to him, watching Shiro as he politely listened something Pidge’s telling him. “I approve him as a future brother-in-law.”

“Gotta admit, me too.” Acxa had murmured thoughtfully, watching Shiro as well. “It’s interesting that a tacky guy like you can have a good taste, Keith.”

“Funny.” Keith had replied calmly. “That’s exactly how I feel about you scoring Ezor.”

“ _Bitch._ ”)

Their doorbell rings in the evening. Knowing it’s probably Ezor since Acxa are she are going out tonight, Keith doesn’t bother standing up from the couch where he’s happily eating pizza, but his sister yells from upstairs.

“Keith, can you get the door? I’m looking for my earrings.”

He stands up with a grumble to open the door. Just as he thought, it’s Ezor.

“Hello Keith.” she greets with her bubbly voice. Her long, red curls are hanging down to her waist today.

“Hi, Ezor, welcome.” he replies and then yells to upstairs. “Acxa, Lady Melisandre is here!”

Keith can almost imagine her rolling eyes as Ezor giggles. “I’m aware, idiot. I’ll go downstairs in a minute.”

“Let’s wait in the living room.” Keith suggests, moving towards it. Ezor quickly follows him. “Would you like some pepperoni pizza?”

“God, I wouldn’t say no to a slice.” Ezor says as Keith holds out the box to her. She takes a bite and makes a pleased noise. “Delicious. I have no idea how Acxa can stay away from stuff like that.”

Keith takes a large sip from his cherry coke. “She’s such health freak, isn’t she?”

“Let’s roll with saying she’s a careful eater.” Ezor corrects smoothly, guarding her girlfriend’s back. Keith rolls his eyes but she just laughs.

Acxa’s energetic footsteps is heard from the corridor and a moment later, she enters the living room. She leans to greet Ezor with a kiss on the lips, but she grimaces when she notices she’s eating pizza and kisses her forehead instead.

“Sorry, I know you don’t like pepperoni.” Ezor says but she doesn’t look very sorry as she takes another bite.

“No, it’s okay, but just you know, I can always make you healthier pizza if you want,” she suggests, twirling a finger in Ezor’s hair. “Eating this pratically means swallowing spoonful of warm oil, babe.” She wrinkles her nose.

“Honey, there are so much worse warm fluids to swallow in the world.” Ezor says with a serious face.

Keith burst into laughter, almost chocking on his pizza. Acxa hides her giggles into Ezor’s hair as her girlfriend finishes her slice.

“So,” Ezor starts after she chews off her last bite, greenish blue eyes lighting up with mischief. “How are things going with your boyfriend Keith?”

It’s almost a reflex to reply this question with the same answer. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh come on, you don’t need to play coy with me.”

Acxa lets out a tired sigh. “He’s not lying Ezor, they’re not dating.”

Ezor’s mouth opens with surprise. “Why the hell not?!”

“Yeah, Keith, why the hell not?” Axca repeats with a faux sweetness.

“Let me know if I’ve heard correctly: The guy looks at you like you hung the moon and stars and you’re telling me you’re not dating him?” Ezor asks, lifting both of her eyebrows.

“We’re not— wait.” Keith suddenly leans forward, eyes going wide. “He really looks at me like that?”

“What.The.Fuck?” Acxa looks like she’s five seconds away from hitting him. “I’ve already told you this. Lotor has told you this. _Mom_ has told you this.”

“You’re family, of course you’re gonna tell me what I want to hear.”

“ _Bitch,_ I assure you, no one in this family loves you enough to tell you what you want to hear.”

“Anyway,” Ezor continues as if she was never interrupted after Acxa successfully avoids Keith’s kick. “Please tell me at least you’re talking with notepads through your windows like that Taylor Swift clip. That’s the number one rule of having a crush on your opposite neighbour.”

“Sorry Ezor, looks like I will disappoint you again.” Keith says, a little amused despite himself. “1)This isn’t a romcom and 2)His bedroom is downstairs while mine is upstairs.”

“Oh so you would consider it if his room wasn’t downstairs.” Acxa baits him.

Keith, wisely, chooses not to answer.

“We should leave now if we don’t want to be late.” Ezor says standing up. She looks at Keith with an unusually serious face. “But please think about what I said. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you not even for a second at Lance’s rooftop party the last time. And that’s only _one_ example. From what Acxa’s been telling me, he’s genuinely interested in you. Don’t let your chance slip by.”

Keith gives her a shaky nod. He suddenly feels like something got stuck in his throat.

He shuts himself to his room after they leave. His mom’s working late again, so he’s alone in home for God knows how long. He throws himself to his bed with a low groan.

Keith’s never been a person who could get close to people easily. It’s always been hard for him to open up to people, to let them in. But once he became close friends with someone, he would do anything to keep that closeness.

But that wasn’t the case when it came to Shiro. Opening up to him had been easy, letting him in had been easy, he _wanted_ it to be easy, he wanted to be his friend and his _lover._ Being Shiro’s friend is a blessing, a privilege, but Keith’s dreading the day it’ll finally stop being enough and by the time he’s brave enough tell him, it’s going to be too late.

But what if confessing his feelings right now doesn’t get them anywhere either? What if he loses Shiro’s friendship this time?

He gets up from the bed, feeling overwhelmed, yanking his curtains open. _It’s so fucking suffocating,_ he thinks angrily. _It’s not even June and it’s already –_

Shiro’s standing on the opposite window.

He doesn’t see Keith at first. He’s too busy looking for something and Keith feels like his feet got stuck on the floor. He can’t help but stands where he is, watching Shiro curiously.

After a while Shiro lifts his head and his eyes finally lands on Keith, a smile immediately appearing on his face. Keith reaches for his phone to send him a quick text to ask what he’s doing, but Shiro politely lifts a finger to stop him and _out of nowhere_ , he pulls a notepad and starts writing something on it.

Keith freezes. _Oh God. Oh God, it’s really happening._ He’s made a joke about it literally twenty minutes ago and now his life’s really turning into a Taylor Swift clip.

Shiro finishes writing and turns the notepad towards him.

 **SORRY, LEFT MY PHONE DOWNSTAIRS.** He turns the page. **I WAS LOOKING FOR MY TELESCOPE, THE SKY IS SO CLEAR TONIGHT.** He turns the page again. **DO YOU WANNA COME OVER?**

Keith continues standing on the window, gaping at Shiro like the absolute moron he is, but he eventually composes himself enough to give him a nod. He quickly writes a note for his mom and leaves the home.

Shiro opens the door for him without even waiting for him to knock. “Hi Keith.” he says with a happy smile.

Keith’s own smile is a little shaky. “Hi.”

“You weren’t busy or anything, right? I kinda rushed you.”

“No, no I wasn’t.” Keith says. “Thank you for inviting me.”

“Anytime.” Shiro’s voice is warm. “Grandpa’s gone to bed early tonight. Come on, I set the telescope.”

He reaches and pulls Keith inside by tugging him from his hand. Keith’s cheeks reddens but he continues holding Shiro’s hand as calmly as he can.

Shiro’s home has a medium sized terrace unlike Keith’s. He’s never seen the previous owners use this place but now it’s decorated with some plants and flowers. Shiro’s telescope stands in the medium of it, a comfortable looking mattress behind it.

“My second favourite thing about this neighbourhood is,” Shiro says, sitting on mattress and patting the spot beside him to make Keith sit as well. “The lack of light pollution. You can actually see the stars here unlike most places.”

Keith snorts lightly. “Second favourite? What’s your favourite thing?”

“You.” Shiro simply says, as if this is the most obvious answer ever.

Keith briefly shuts his eyes tight. And how is he not supposed to tell Shiro how he really feels when Shiro says things like that so easily? When he touches Keith so easily, when even the smallest contact from him sets Keith’s entire body on fire?

He quietly exhales and looks at Shiro with a tiny, teasing smile.

“Alright, Mr. Astronomy Major,” he says, making Shiro roll his eyes. “Tell me all you know about the stars.”

“At your service.” Shiro replies in an earnest manner.

The next hour passes in a pleasant blur. They take turns to look at the telescope and Shiro _really_ tells him all he knows, sometimes interrupting himself to tell Keith he can always tell him to stop if he gets bored. Keith doesn’t. Listening to Shiro’s soft voice as he tells him about the stars in the warm evening is one of the best feelings in the world. Especially when the distance between their bodies is pretty much non-exist.

They finally get tired and decide to lay down on mattress to continue watching the stars with naked eye. Their arms brush and Keith’s attention shifts from stars to Shiro’s prosthetic arm.

“May I?” he quietly asks, half-afraid he’s going to offend Shiro somehow.

Shiro though, doesn’t get offended and wraps his hand around Keith’s. Keith lightly caresses his metal fingers, and stupidly wonders if Shiro can feel his touch.

“It’s beautiful.” he murmurs. Shiro hums lowly.

There, laying down on a mattress, staring at the stars and holding Shiro’s hand in the warm evening, Keith makes a decision.

He turns sideways without letting go of Shiro’s hand, leaning his cheek against his palm. Shiro looks at him with a curious face but doesn’t ask anything.

“Can I ask you something?” Keith asks instead.

“Sure.” Shiro answers lightly.

“Imagine you have this beautiful... _thing._ ” Keith starts, his voice sounds as light as a feather. “You really, really care about this thing. You just feel like you can make it even more beautiful. But, the thing is, if the things doesn’t turn out the way you hope, you might even lose whatever you already have.”

He knows he sucks at speaking with metaphors, he knows what he’s saying makes zero sense but Shiro’s listening him carefully. Like whatever mess Keith’s saying is actually important for him.

“What would you do?” Keith whispers. “Do you think it’s worth taking the risk?”

Shiro continues laying there quietly for a moment, then he takes a deep sigh and curls his fingers around Keith tighter. “Sometimes it is,” he finally says. “And sometimes it isn’t. I know people can’t know for sure what they’re going regret and what they’re not most of the time but sometimes... _certain_ times…you can clearly see you’re going to regret something. You can realise, even if the things doesn’t work out the way you want in the end, you’ll regret not doing anything at all when you had the chance. You’ll keep wondering if it could be different...”

Keith looks at him for a long time.

“Okay,” he says eventually. “ _Okay._ ”

He leans over Shiro and kisses him.

The kiss itself is very soft, yet Keith’s whole body feels as if somebody set him on fire. Shiro’s flesh hand finds Keith’s cheek to stroke it gently. Keith retreats a moment later and finds Shiro looking at him with pure affection when he opens his eyes.

“Thank you,” Shiro whispers. “I was about to do it if you haven’t, you know.”

Keith’s blush deepens with happiness but he’s not done yet. He lifts Shiro up by tugging from his hands, looking directly at his eyes.

“Shiro, the very first day you moved here, I almost broke my neck because I was too busy admiring how gorgeous you were,” he blurts in one breath.

Shiro blinks a couple of times, and then starts laughing in an almost uncontrollable way. Keith starts laughing too and at least two minutes passes before he’s able to continue.

“But you’re so much more than a gorgeous face and I consider myself so lucky to know you. You’re one of the most amazing people I’ve known. You inspire me, you make me braver and happier and you make me feel so _warm_ all the time and...” Keith’s voice shakes a little. “Will you be my first boyfriend?”

The look in Shiro’s eyes... Ezor is right. He really looks at Keith like he hung the moon and the stars. He pulls Keith to his chest, wraps his arms around him with the softest embrace.

“It would be my honor.” he whispers to Keith’s hair as he kisses it.


End file.
